Friday, June 29, 2018
Headlines for June 29, 2018
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted 11 minutes.
CANDIDATES FOR “WORST”/”MOST DISGUSTING”:
*Trump and Putin: A Love Story
Disgusting homophobia with the NY Times imprimatur.
*Fears grow over prospect of Trump ‘peace deal’ with Putin
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fears-grow-over-prospect-of-trump-peace-deal-with-putin-6f69gqq27
God forbid. Because if there were peace, NATO’s whole raison d’etre would be called into question. And, by the way, although the article starts out “Britain fears”, the next sentence makes clear that “Britain” is actually “Cabinet Ministers”, not regular people.
*Immigrant toddlers ordered to appear in court alone
#NotTheOnion
“Leaders at three legal services organizations and a private firm confirmed that children are being served with notices to appear in court. They are not entitled to an attorney but rather are given a list of legal services organizations that might help them.” Note: it was the Obama administration who was responsible for going into court and making sure that these children were not entitled to an attorney.
*Children separated from their parents forced to recite pledge of allegiance
In English! What the actual eff?
BBC finds Andrew Marr guilty of breach over claim Israel killed 'lots of Palestinian kids'
Apparently 5 Palestinian kids who had been killed by Israeli snipers in the Gaza border protests up to that point (April 8) didn’t count as “lots” to the BBC, although it is exactly the same number of dead who qualified as a “massacre” in one of the seminal events of the American Revolution — the Boston Massacre. Not to mention that HUNDREDS of Palestinian kids (thousands by now) had been wounded in those protests, many of them maimed for life.
Fed up with violence and corruption, Mexican voters embrace a seasoned leftist who wants to double the minimum wage
So what? They wouldn’t want to double the minimum wage if there weren’t violence and corruption? Also “The anti-establishment rhetoric he’s been fine-tuning for more than a decade is finally in step with a recent global shift toward populism.” You mean like the “populism” of Trump who gives massive tax cuts to businesses, not minimum wage increases to workers?
Also “Just a few years ago, when he came to Chihuahua to gin up support for the National Regeneration Movement, the leftist political party he founded, Lopez Obrador was lucky to draw even 50 people to his events.” Really? In 2006 AMLO officially lost the Presidential election by a half percent, and was arguably cheated out of the win.
CANDIDATES FOR “MOST MISLEADING”:
I Hacked an Election. So Can the Russians.
It was a mock election in which he had physical access to the voting machines. Also why not “so can the Republicans”? Or “Israelis”? (He does smear the DPRK in the piece though!)
*Americans Love Families. American Policies Don’t.
Wouldn’t an accurate headline be “Americans SAY (or pretend) they love families”? And by “Americans” they mostly mean “politicians”, as the first sentence of the article shows: “Politicians are united in their love for families.”
North Korea continues construction of nuclear research facility despite agreement to 'denuclearize': report
As the article makes clear, this is their *research* facility, and “denuclearization” is just shorthand for eliminating nuclear *weapons*, not nuclear power or nuclear medicine. Also, FOX, please note that “Rogue Nation” (complete with capital letters) is NOT actually a name for the DPRK.
CANDIDATES FOR “FUNNIEST”:
Soaring Cost of Clues Leaves Thomas Friedman Apparently Unable to Buy One
Dean Baker takes on Friedman’s understanding of economics. No need to discuss the article, it’s just a funny headline, because Thomas Friedman rarely has a clue about anything.
This pair could also be under “misleading”
Trump’s approval plummets way, way down . . . to where it’s been for a while
Gallup (basis for article):
Trump Job Approval Slips Back to 41%
Down from 45% the previous week. But after 10 paragraphs of explanation about why this might be, we get to the (literal) fine print: Sampling error is +/-3%. So 41% and 45% ARE NOT STATISTICALLY DIFFERENT!
Is North Korea a Nuclear Threat or Not? The President Now Says It Is
Funny, but highlights the utter hypocrisy of US laws. Why did Trump say that DPRK poses “an extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States”? Because that fiction, in effect for the last three Presidents, is what is required to maintain the sanctions on the DPRK, who has done nothing whatsoever to the US and poses no such “threat” to the US in any sphere..
Headlines for June 22, 2018
Click here to listen to this week's segment on Loud & Clear Radio.
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted 11 minutes.
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted 11 minutes.
CANDIDATES FOR “WORST”/”MOST DISGUSTING”:
*Mattis slams Russia, says Putin 'attempts to undermine America's moral authority
Or should this be under funniest?
“He aims to diminish the appeal of the western democratic model and attempts to undermine America's moral authority, his actions are designed not to challenge our arms at this point but to undercut and compromise our belief in our ideals,"
Mattis 'not aware' of North Korea taking any steps to denuclearize
So suspending testing and destroying your nuclear testing site and your engine testing facility doesn’t count?
*Gazans have survived years of war. Now depression is killing them.
Definitely a good thing to cover this important issue but A) Thousands of Gazans HAVEN’T survived; B) Mental health problems like depression & PTSD have been a reality or DECADES. WaPo did have one article about child trauma back in 2009 at the time of Operation Cast Lead, nothing since.
CANDIDATES FOR “MOST MISLEADING”:
The pair of the following, one day after another, in the same outlet (financial "analysis" can always "explain" any rise or fall of prices of something):
*Oil prices climb as OPEC moves toward output deal
*Global oil prices drop as OPEC appears close to deal on higher output
Trump adviser says 'nobody likes' family separation policy
President Trump Calls His Own Family Separation Policy 'So Sad.' Here's Why He Supports It Anyway
Melania Trump 'hates to see' children separated from their families at borders
Two examples of how the media enables Trump and lets him have his cake and eat it too. Clearly if “nobody” in the Administration likes the family separation policies, they could simply stop them. And if Melania hates to see it why does her jacket on the day she visits them say “I really don’t care. Do u?”
Kim Jong Un ends visit to China with a message for the US
Not a single quote from Kim in this article. Instead quotes from Bill Richardson, Mintaro Oba (a former Korea desk officer at the State Department under President Barack Obama), both telling us what Kim is thinking.
As North Korea danger recedes ever so slightly, renewed Russian threat looms
“Russia, emboldened by its ability to alter the results of the 2016 US presidential election, is almost certain to try again in the 2018 midterms.” There is ZERO evidence anything “Russia” did “altered” the 2016 result (even the “intelligence community” didn’t make that claim) & ZERO evidence of any 2018 activity”.
CANDIDATES FOR “FUNNIEST”:
*Ukraine’s Got a Real Problem with Far-Right Violence (And No, RT Didn’t Write This Headline)
“It sounds like the stuff of Kremlin propaganda, but it’s not.”
“The anti-democratic ideology these groups espouse runs counter the values of the Euromaidan.”
Author Josh Cohen is a former USAID project officer who managed economic reform projects throughout the former Soviet Union.
*Trump says he requested end to 'war games' in talks with North Korea's Kim Jong Un
Huh?
'Commie cadet' who wore Che Guevara T-shirt kicked out of US army
West Point grad who posed with 'Communism will win' in cap discharged
But Rapone remains unabashed, posting a picture on Monday showing him the middle finger at a sign at the entrance to Fort Drum, captioned with “One final salute.”
“I would encourage all soldiers who have a conscience to lay down their arms and join me and so many others who are willing to stop serving the agents of imperialism and join us in a revolutionary movement,” he said.
Contrast to this misleading headline:
Marine who marched with neo-Nazis in Charlottesville found guilty in court-martial
The U.S. Marine who marched with neo-Nazis in last summer's "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been found guilty in a summary court-martial after he reportedly bragged online about participating in the violence that day (note: not just “marching” as the headline implies)
He has been sentenced to 28 days of confinement, a reduction of two ranks to E-1, and the forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay for a month.
Vasillios has seven days to submit a request for clemency to the convening officer, the Marines said.
Vasillios has seven days to submit a request for clemency to the convening officer, the Marines said.
Friday, June 15, 2018
How Russian Meddling Gave Us This Year’s World Cup
This New York Times article—original title “How Russian Meddling Gave Us This Year’s World Cup”, later changed to the noncommittal “Did Russia Steal the World Cup?”)—is the latest manifestation of Russiamania, featuring none other than Christopher Steele. Yes, that’s Christopher Steele of Trump dossier and “pee tape” fame, as the article’s subtitle immediately reminds us. Spoiler alert — the answer to the revised title is “No”.
The story is that in 2010, Steele became suspicious because Russia was trying to get the 2018 World Cup. Why was he suspicious? Because Russia doesn’t “have a great soccer tradition” and hadn’t even qualified for the 2010 World Cup. You know who also doesn’t have a great soccer tradition, didn’t qualify for this year’s World Cup, and just won the bid for the 2026 World Cup (for the second time)? That’s right, the U.S., the only country in the world who doesn’t even call it “football”! Seeking prestigious sporting events like the World Cup or the Olympics is a perfectly normal activity for big countries and even small ones (Qatar hosts the next World Cup), so right off the bat I’m suspicious of the motivations of anyone who claims it was “suspicious” that Russia was seeking the World Cup.
But armed with his suspicions, Steele began investigating, and soon had “a growing pile of intelligence [note: not “evidence” but “intelligence”, kind of like the still unproven “intelligence” in the Trump dossier] suggesting that Russian government officials and oligarchs close to Mr. Putin had been enlisted to push the effort [a completely normal activity by any country seeking the Cup], cutting shadowy gas deals with other countries in exchange for votes, [and] offering expensive gifts of art to FIFA voters. [those would definitely be illegal, if true]”
Now there definitely was corruption and outright bribery in FIFA on a large scale, and the investigations in multiple countries resulted in multiple convictions and eventually forced long-time FIFA President Sepp Blatter from office. So was Steele (and the author of this hit piece in the Times) right? Did Russian “meddling” (by implication, illegal in nature) win Russia the World Cup? When you get to the 15th paragraph of the article, here’s what you learn:
“But there is one glaring hole in what even the vanquished defense attorneys who had corrupt soccer officials as clients called a breathtakingly meticulous and exhaustive federal investigation and prosecution: any mention of Russia. Court records from the case run into the thousands of pages, and prosecutors spent weeks laying out every tangled intricacy of their digging in a six-week criminal trial in federal court in Brooklyn late last year. But Russia, strangely, seems to have been completely absent from any of it.”
Oops! There’s no there there! Not a shred of evidence that was actually credible enough to be introduced in court had anything to do with Russia. No matter, though — mission accomplished with this article. Russia smeared in the pages of The New York Times on the eve of the World Cup, on the basis of…absolutely nothing other than Christopher Steele’s “intelligence”. Maybe the proof is in the “pee tape”.
Headlines for June 15, 2018
Click here to listen to this week's segment on Loud & Clear Radio.
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted 11 minutes.
CANDIDATES FOR “WORST”/”MOST DISGUSTING”:
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted 11 minutes.
CANDIDATES FOR “WORST”/”MOST DISGUSTING”:
*The Biggest Winner at the U.S.-North Korea Summit: China
*The big winner of the Trump-Kim summit? China.
*China winner from summit but wary of closer US-N. Korea ties
WaPo headline but AP article widely repeated. China “won” because they asked for end to war games, got it. Also a vague Trump promise of withdrawal of troops maybe sometime. In the entire article, there’s not a single mention of the North Korean people, the South Korean people, the American people, nothing.
*How Russian Meddling Gave Us This Year’s World Cup
“Russia appeared profoundly unqualified to host a month-long tournament expected to draw well over three million spectators. For starters, Russia didn’t have a great soccer tradition; its team hadn’t even qualified to play in the 2010 World Cup.” Guess who just got awarded the World Cup after not qualifying for this one, and who also doesn’t have a great soccer tradition?
“In 2010, Mr. Steele collected a growing pile of intelligence suggesting that Russian government officials and oligarchs close to Mr. Putin had been enlisted to push the effort, cutting shadowy gas deals with other countries in exchange for votes, offering expensive gifts of art to FIFA voters” which, according to this article, was what triggered the huge FIFA scandal in 2015 which ousted Sepp Blatter and many others.
Russia wanted the World Cup (like many other countries). FIFA is (or was) corrupt. More than 2 dozen people were convicted of crimes involving hundreds of millions of dollars of bribes.
But guess what? It wasn’t Russia, as you’ll learn if you get to paragraph 15:
“But there is one glaring hole in what even the vanquished defense attorneys who had corrupt soccer officials as clients called a breathtakingly meticulous and exhaustive federal investigation and prosecution: any mention of Russia. Court records from the case run into the thousands of pages, and prosecutors spent weeks laying out every tangled intricacy of their digging in a six-week criminal trial in federal court in Brooklyn late last year. But Russia, strangely, seems to have been completely absent from any of it.”
Sessions cites Bible passage used to defend slavery in defense of separating immigrant families
CANDIDATES FOR “MOST MISLEADING”:
Trump's 'deals' are going to kill us all
CANDIDATES FOR “FUNNIEST”:
*Gasp! Rachel Maddow reveals shocking fact that North Korea has a border with Russia
*Trump touts North Korean real estate potential
My tweet BEFORE the “signing” or the press conference: “Breaking news: the “signing” announced by Trump is for a Trump resort and golf course to be built in the DPRK.”
Joking, of course. Or was I?
*White House tasks office with taping together papers after Trump rips them up: report
!
Domino's Is Fixing America's Crappy Roads For Pizza Safety And That's Pretty Embarrassing
Every pothole they fill carries their logo!
Jon Stewart: ‘Let’s Be Honest,’ Democrats ‘Don’t Really Give a F*ck About Russia’
Jon Stewart lets the cat out of the bag. "If the Russians had somehow helped Hillary Clinton and it had prevented Trump from being elected in the first place, Stewart said Democrats would have tried their best to look the other way. “But now we’ve got to act like it’s super important,” he said, because we think it could end his presidency."
Reporters thought this video was North Korea propaganda. It came from the White House.
Calling this video “bizarre” does a disservice to the word “bizarre”
Donald Trump 'tired of Theresa May's school mistress tone’ and will not hold talks with her at G7
The US president is said to bristle at the Prime Minister’s approach during phone calls, with Mrs May quick to get into policy details rather than wider conversation.
One senior US diplomat said Mr Trump had expressed annoyance at Mrs May’s frequent demands, which are seen as taking advantage of the UK-US relationship.
Another long-time friend of the president revealed he had privately complained of how Mrs May calls him out in public when he is deemed to have stepped out of line.
Friday, June 08, 2018
Headlines for June 8, 2018
Click here to listen to this week's segment on Loud & Clear Radio.
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted 11 minutes.
CANDIDATES FOR “WORST”/”MOST DISGUSTING”:
*A Woman Dedicated to Saving Lives Loses Hers in Gaza Violence
Actually a decent article, even with an accompanying video including an interview with murdered medic Razan al-Najjar, but the headline is the usual outrage on two grounds — no indication of HOW she “lost her life”, and the utterly misleading phrase “Gaza violence”. If anything, it should read "Israeli violence". What’s wrong with “Israeli snipers murder Palestinian dedicated to saving lives”?
*Israeli Video Portrays Medic Killed in Gaza as Tool of Hamas
Reducing this horrendous war crime to a he-said, she-said situation based on Israeli propaganda.
@IDFSpokesperson edited a video of the murdered medic Razan al-Najjar to say "I am a human shield," when what Razan ACTUALLY says is, "I'm here as a rescuing human shield to protect and save the wounded at the frontlines." And, in something the video uses to portray her as some kind of terrorist, she throws a tear gas canister, which came originally from Israel, away from her (maybe 20 yards at most) into an empty field, not at anyone. And of course Israel accuses her of being “Hamas”, just like Donald Trump labels everything that puts him in a bad light as “Fake News”.
US envoy to reporters: ‘Keep your mouths shut’ on criticizing Israel over Gaza
“David Friedman says the media should either figure out how anyone could have better dealt with the border protests or stop its negative coverage of the Jewish state.” Anyone with any suggestions? And by the way, why the media’s job is to report on the protests, not to “figure out how Israel should deal with them”. No coverage of this direct attack on the press in the US media, by the way.
*Kim Jong-un’s Image Shift: From Nuclear Madman to Skillful Leader
It wasn’t Kim who “shifted”; it was the corporate media. Kim was never a “nuclear madman”.
Will Trump Raise North Korea's Human Rights Abuses At Summit With Kim Jong Un?
Will Kim raise the subject of Guantanamo? Cops murdering unarmed Black and Brown people? Homelessness? People freezing to death because they can’t afford to turn on the heat? People dying from lack of health care? NPR doesn’t want to know. Nor are they concerned with the fact that US sanctions are a major contributor to the suffering of the Korean people, just as they are with the Iranian people, the Cuban people, and others.
CANDIDATES FOR “MOST MISLEADING”:
*North Korea's three new military leaders are loyal to Kim, not policies
Says who? Says “a senior U.S. official and North Korea leadership analysts in Seoul”. It could be true. Or it could be as true as the 2016 report from the BBC that “North Korea has executed its army chief of staff Ri Yong-gil,” the man who was just named as the Army’s Chief of General Staff.
Days after Taliban assault in western Afghanistan, allegations of an Iranian role
But zero actual EVIDENCE. A headline (and article) produced for one reason only — to advance the anti-Iran agenda.
Pentagon: ‘No one will ever know’ how many civilians U.S. has killed in fight against ISIS
On the one hand, this isn't misleading at all. The Colonel in charge says "I am just being honest, no one will ever know. Anyone who claims they will know is lying, and there’s no possible way." And he's right. But it's also a way of covering up the fact that they just don't care to know, just like in Afghanistan or Iraq, despite his claim of "the U.S. military’s best efforts to assess civilian casualties." Also a way to pretend that "“We adhere to a meticulous targeting and strike process that always aims to minimize harm to noncombatants and civilian infrastructure."
Ivanka Trump Was In Contact With A Russian Who Offered A Trump-Putin Meeting
But from the article: "There is no evidence that Ivanka Trump’s contact with the athlete — the former Olympic weightlifter Dmitry Klokov — was illegal or that it had anything to do with the election. Nor is it clear that Klokov could even have introduced Trump to the Russian president. But congressional investigators have reviewed emails and questioned witnesses about the interaction, according to two of the sources, and so has special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, according to the other two."
At least 100 killed in Nicaragua as political violence intensifies
100 is the total “since the uprising began” (in April), and the article contains no information about how many of the 100 were government supporters vs government opponents (or who killed them).
CANDIDATES FOR “FUNNIEST”:
*American Airlines to debut smaller bathrooms for North American flights
How is that even possible??? “bathrooms on the new Boeing 737-Max airplanes will now be only 24 inches wide, which many have said is too small for most adults”. Most caskets? 28” wide!!!
*Israel Responds With 'Mean Girls' GIF After Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei's Nuclear Threats
Rachel McAdams (as Israel) saying “Why are you so obsessed with me?” Gee, I wonder. The real (and probably unintended) insult—in this analogy, Iran is Lindsay Lohan. Incidentally Khamenei did not make any “nuclear threats”. He ordered increased enrichment (within the scope of the JCPOA) and said “Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated”, which is actually a threat, but not a nuclear one.
A Kentucky crowd cheered a valedictorian for quoting Trump. Then he told them it was Obama.
Funny for what it says about the polarization in America, but for sure it could have also been the other way around. Like this Trump quote about deporting unaccompanied minors: “They should be sent back as soon as it can be determined who responsible adults in their families are.” Oh wait, that was Hillary Clinton.
New report finds no evidence that having sex with robots is healthy
Maker of sex robot says: “Roxxxy, our sex robot, provides what every adult needs — unconditional love and support. The ability to feel the loving embrace of a lover is a right every adult should be granted. We provide a solution to help adults meet their social as well as sexual needs.”
Ethics professor: “It offends me that they think a hu
